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Installation And User Interface

As mentioned before Steganos Online Shield VPN does work with Windows 8.1 and above.

You can use it on a laptop as well because it doesn’t require many resources.

None of the VPN service providers do so that isn’t really a positive.

Anyway, we’ll focus on the Windows version of Steganos Online Shield VPN service in this Steganos Online Shield VPN review.

This is one area where we think Steganos Online Shield VPN service can rival any of the other VPN service providers available in the market.

What we mean to say is that the installation process for Steganos Online Shield VPN service was clean, easy, quick and comfortable.

Everything that you need to do and that needs to happen to make Steganos Online Shield work on the user’s machine takes place inside a big blue screen.

Which is great for simplicity and minimalism.

As we have said many times before, simplicity trumps complexity when it comes to installation processes.

VPN service providers who make their installation process simple via great graphical user interfaces tend to attract more customers.

This is one area where Steganos Online Shield VPN has hit the nail right on its head.

With that said, we do think that the installation interface could have used a bit more elegance.

Other top VPN service providers such as Spotflux have left the old and serious VPN installation themes.

They now have a modern design which is refreshing to the say the least.

We also think that Spotflux has basically redefined that a user can expect from a great VPN service provider.

Other VPN service providers such as Hotspot Shield Elite from AnchorFree aren’t as elegant as Spotflux.

But Hot Post more and makes up for the lack of elegance with extra features jammed packed in a small application window.

Some users don’t care about user interfaces, if you are one of those users then VPN service providers such as Private Internet Access may fulfill your needs without many flashy screens.

Private Internet Access doesn’t have a normal user interface.

Instead, it offers users all its features within a simple and tiny system-tray icon.

Perhaps it would have served Steganos Online Shield VPN better if they had gone the same way.

But to each his own we guess.

User Interface

The main window of Steganos Online Shield VPN app basically has this pane on the left-hand side which lists some options for the user.

The pane represents four usage scenarios for the users.

And they are as follows,

Surf the internet without advertisements

Enable safe surfing on public and open Wifi networks

Block country restrictions

Enable anonymity

Users can click on each scenario to turn on the appropriate effect and the related but appropriate configuration.

This setting is especially great for users who have not used VPN services before.

We guess it also works for more experienced users who don’t want to spend too much of their time setting up a VPN service. App.

Moreover, clicking the buttons automatically change the settings.

This is especially helpful for users who know what they want but don’t have how to translate that into VPN app settings.

It is great that Steganos Online Shield VPN app has taken it upon itself to set specific configuration settings without much user input.

As mentioned before, users can see several toggle buttons on the main windows.

Each of these activities a different feature.

Some of these features are as follows,

Encryption

Ad blocking feature

Social tracking disabler

Cookie deleting feature

User anonymizer

Here is the troubling part:

These are features which are offered by most VPN service providers and are enabled by default.

It is quite surprising that the people behind Steganos Online Shield VPN service didn’t think it necessary to enable these features by default.

What kind of a user would want to pay for a VPN service but would not want to enable user anonymity by default?

This is truly baffling.

If that wasn’t bad enough for you already then you’ll be glad to know that you can’t really use the VPN service as soon as you install the Steganos Online Shield VPN app.

Why?Because it requires additional components to activate itself.

Users are required to download these separately.

What kind of a two-phase setup process is this anyway?

We don’t recall reviewing any other VPN service provider that puts the user through so many phases in order to provide them with basic VPN protection.

If you think you are protected from hackers and government agencies after you have entered the correct settings, then you are wrong.

Why?Because the VPN isn’t actually working right now.

If you want to get secured and connect to the VPN service then you have to take another step.

That step is quite unintuitive.

Basically, you have to click the small computer icon that is located in the center of the application windows.

Moreover, during our research for this Steganos Online Shield VPN review, we found that it took a lot of time to connect to a given VPN server.

Disconnecting and connecting to a different VPN server also took a lot of time.

Other VPN service providers also take some time to connect and disconnect but not as long as Steganos Online Shield VPN service did.

If you are curious enough (and you should be if you have paid for the service) then you will try to hover over the small computer icon that is located in the center of the Steganos Online Shield VPN configuration screen.

When you hover over it, you can see the IP address Steganos Online Shield VPN app has assigned to you by default.

If we’re talking about default settings, then the Steganos Online Shield VPN application connects you to the fastest server that is available by default.

This is great as it saves time and a lot headache.

If you want to then you can easily change your VPN server’s country from the same menu.

All is not lost for Steganos Online Shield VPN. The company has a couple of things going for it.
But the downsides are too great to look at anything else.
There are very few features and the user interface is clunky.
Its VPN servers are slow and offer bad real-world user experience.
The only way to test this VPN service is via the free trial and that's what we recommend if you have time to kill.

Zohair is currently a content crafter at Security Gladiators and has been involved in the technology industry for more than a decade. He is an engineer by training and, naturally, likes to help people solve their tech related problems. When he is not writing, he can usually be found practicing his free-kicks in the ground beside his house.

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